A Creative Escape

I know that’s a funny title for the story I’m about to tell, but at least now we can sort of laugh (a little) about what happened. And as you know, I’ve been scrapbooking my oldest son’s adventures and experiences at Riverside during his junior and senior years of high school – and these pages definitely document one of his adventures.

Based on one of Ali Edward’s design sketches, this page tells the story of T leaving RMA’s campus – a huge transgression in their eyes. And one that had multiple consequences. On this particular Friday night, the family was out having dinner when we received this phone call from the school: “Sir. Did you or your wife come to pick up Tanner? He’s missing.” What?????

Well, T had left. We tried to reach him by phone and text and called all his friends. Nothing. RMA was going to issue a missing Cadet report if we hadn’t located him by 11:30pm. We surely didn’t want that. And luckily, around 9:30 Tanner texted us that he was okay. We still didn’t know where he was, but at least we knew he was fine and the state patrol wouldn’t have to be involved.

Turns out he went with friends to a concert at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. Wow. The photo used in the layout gives you an idea. You can read the details in the layout. Very stressful evening for us.

The metal embellishments are from Tim Holtz (Idea-ology Sprocket Gears) and the letter stickers are from Rusty Pickle. Very simple layout – it really was the story that needed to be shared.

This layout memorializes the fallout from T’s AWOL excursion. He was dismissed from RMA and had to attend a hearing to appeal for re-admission. Of course this all happened in the middle of a north Georgia ice storm. The hearing was super intimidating. But T’s company officers vouched for him and his appeal was granted. But not without punishment. Either 1 week in-school suspension and the requirement that he play baseball for RMA (T is a really good pitcher) or 1 week out-of-school suspension. Plus restriction to campus for 8 weeks. Which meant no visits home for 2 months. The template I used for this layout is from Cathy Zielske, and the chipboard phrase is from one of Ali’s Story Kits.

Well – T chose 1 week of out of school suspension. So out for a week and 8 weeks restriction to campus. Then came Easter and his spring break.

Ali’s “Gather” Story Kit was perfect for this little Easter layout. I used a 6 x 8 piece of card stock and cut down a 6 x 12 page protector. I actually like having different sizes in the album. Didn’t think I would – but I’ve found I’m doing this more and more. And I really love the white plastic words that come in each of the Story Kits. They’re so much fun to use and they bring design consistency to the different layouts in the album.

For spring break, we took Tanner and 2 of his friends to Hilton Head for the week. Lots of beach time, freedom, pizza and girls. Fishing also was on the agenda. Super fun. This layout idea is similar to one used by Ali. I added the captions under the photos using Photoshop, printed the photos out on photo paper and just trimmed them to include the captions. The type was added to a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock and the chipboard and embellishments are from the Story Kits.

Hi there!

My name is Cathleen. And I'm a Weekend Widow. Which may sound a little odd - but it's more common than you think! I'm here to provide inspiration and ideas for what you can do with your precious weekend time. And share with you what I do with mine! Read More…